Seems highly unlikely to me, for at least two reasons:
The SARS-CoV-2 viruses are roughly 50-200 nanometers in size, right around the size where HEPA filters are least effective (both facts from Wikipedia).
Given the 2-meter-distance advice, I’d assume most airborn contagion comes from fairly direct breathing/coughing/aerosolization. It’s possible that a strong ventilation system could help here, but it would have to circulate a lot of air very quickly.
Edit to add: HEPA filters are already widely used in hospital ventilation systems, so I imagine any low-hanging fruit here has already been plucked.
Diffusion predominates below the 0.1 μm diameter particle size, whilst impaction and interception predominate above 0.4 μm.[11] In between, near the most penetrating particle size (MPPS) 0.21 μm, both diffusion and interception are comparatively inefficient.[12] Because this is the weakest point in the filter’s performance, the HEPA specifications use the retention of particles near this size (0.3 μm) to classify the filter.[11]
From Wikipedia. This Wikipedia article actually seems pretty encouraging—despite 0.3 micrometers being near the filter’s weakest point, it still filters out 99.95% of those particles?
If most transmission takes place over ~2 meters, it could be very helpful to install HEPA filters near e.g. hospital desks/beds/doorways. I don’t remember observing ventilation ducts near desks/beds/doorways in the hospitals I’ve visited.
Seems highly unlikely to me, for at least two reasons:
The SARS-CoV-2 viruses are roughly 50-200 nanometers in size, right around the size where HEPA filters are least effective (both facts from Wikipedia).
Given the 2-meter-distance advice, I’d assume most airborn contagion comes from fairly direct breathing/coughing/aerosolization. It’s possible that a strong ventilation system could help here, but it would have to circulate a lot of air very quickly.
Edit to add: HEPA filters are already widely used in hospital ventilation systems, so I imagine any low-hanging fruit here has already been plucked.
From Wikipedia. This Wikipedia article actually seems pretty encouraging—despite 0.3 micrometers being near the filter’s weakest point, it still filters out 99.95% of those particles?
If most transmission takes place over ~2 meters, it could be very helpful to install HEPA filters near e.g. hospital desks/beds/doorways. I don’t remember observing ventilation ducts near desks/beds/doorways in the hospitals I’ve visited.